Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/136

110 Osiris shows that in the Roman age, when the origin and signification of the old mythology had been forgotten, some portions at least of it were supposed to be connected with an endeavour to determine the length of the year. But with all these allowances it is a far cry to Mr. St. Clair's conclusion that the gods and goddesses of Egyptian religion are nothing more than disguised astronomical or calendrical symbols, of which he has had the good fortune to become the interpreter. No detail of a myth is too trivial or too apocryphal to escape his notice, and be explained in accordance with his theory. The very completeness of his explanations raises our suspicions, especially when we remember how questionable some of the authorities are on whom he relies for his facts.

There is one reason, however, which will prevent Egyptologists from believing that he has really discovered a key that will undo every lock in the religion and mythology of the monuments. If there is anything in ancient Egyptian religion which is now certain, it is that it is a very ill-assorted amalgam of inconsistent elements derived from different local centres, and probably also from different races. Of this Mr. St. Clair's theory not only takes no account, but the fact and the theory are difficult to reconcile. The theory assumes that Egyptian mythology, as it has come down to us, or as it is supposed to have come to us, is a harmonious whole, resting upon the same "astro-religious" basis, and embodying a continuous tradition and historical development. Ra, Osiris, and Anion are all merely phases in the evolution of a calendar.

There are a few misprints in the book, like "redunt" for "redeunt" (p. 40). And why are the accents so hopelessly wrong in the few Greek words that are printed? Maspero's "Khnumu" has been so frequently turned into the senseless "Khnumn"—not to speak of the Index—as to be hardly attributable to oversight, and the eight-rayed star does not denote the Assyrian god Asshur (p. 81). The real shape of the "tongue" of gold mentioned in Joshua vii. 21, will be seen from the illustrations in Schliemann's Ilios, p. 470.